10 Essential Elements of a Project Charter

The project charter defines the vision and objective of a project. It summarizes a high-level project strategy, scope, objectives, and implementation. Typically, a project charter documents the objectives of the project, how it will be carried out, and the respective stakeholders.

Project charter is a crucial element in project planning as it is useful during the entire project. In this article at Project-Management.com, the author lists out all the essential elements of a project charter that sets off the project on the right track.

Essential Mandates

The project charter must cover preliminary framework of the tasks to be performed while giving clear guidance to the teams and stakeholders about the project. It reflects commitment of an organization to deliver the best possible outcome.

What to Include?

A project manager must document the charter with these elements included in it:

Clearly defined objectives and purpose of the project

Brief but high-level requirements of the project

Project description in one or two paragraphs

Risks determined for the project, capturing major areas of concern

Event scheduling with dates showcasing major milestones

Summary of the estimated budget for the project

Approvals required from the organization

Key stakeholders of the project

Introduction of authority or project sponsors

Keeping relevant project goals within time limits

The project charter gives a bird’s eye view of the project in the form of a formal agreement with the crucial project details. Before starting or further committing anything to a new project, the managers are advised to see if all the elements included in the project charter are well-placed.

The author states that the project charter is precise because it is designed to suffice the needs of high-level management. Since they understand the concise project terms and are aware of the project goals in advance, there is no point wasting time on specifying details.